Extracting concealed information from groups

E.H. Meijer*, F.T.Y. Smulders, H.L.G.J. Merckelbach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Lie detection procedures are typically aimed at determining guilt or innocence of a single suspect. Serious security threats, however, often involve groups, such as terrorist networks or criminal organizations. In this report, we describe a variant of the skin conductance-based Concealed Information Test (CIT) that allows for the extraction of critical information from such groups. Twelve participants were given information about an upcoming (mock) terrorist attack, with specific instructions not to reveal this information to anyone. Next, each subject was subjected to a CIT, with questions pertaining to the details of the attack. Results showed that for every question, the average skin conductance response to the correct answer option differed significantly (p <0.05) from those to all other options. These results show that the information about the upcoming attack could be extracted from the group of terror suspects as a whole.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1607-1609
JournalJournal of Forensic Sciences
Volume55
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2010

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